Posting Instagram stories: how to do it & image specifications

About Instagram Story posting

Instagram Story posting is a new feature as of 8 July 2017 that lets you schedule posts to be sent to your Instagram Stories instead of your profile/feed.

Currently you can't send posts to both Instagram Stories and the profile feed at the same time.

How it works

Currently you will only be able to upload Instagram Stories from the regular 'upload media' page (stories upload is currently not available when uploading via the calendar or planner).

When you upload your files, pick the 'Story' option to upload to your Instagram story.

Make sure you crop the post to the correct ratio if you are uploading a post that isn't already the right size/shape. If you are editing, crop to the right size using the crop tool first, as then you won't end up losing any image quality.

In the editor, there is an option to set to the Insta Stories ratio:

Then you can edit the image as you would normally using the image editor if you want to add things like text or filters:

Things that we know need to be added

We'll update this list as we go along.

Proper Story preview so that you can preview the Story specifically

Uploading Stories through the calendar

Change a story to a "feed/profile" post and vice versa in upcoming posts

Note that your posts scheduled to stories won't appear in the Instagram planner. That's because they don't appear on your profile! You can see and edit any stories from 'upcoming posts' or 'calendar'.

Specification for Instagram Stories

Instagram Stories are hard-cropped (that is, you don't get a choice but let Instagram crop it) to the aspect ratio of the phone that you are posting them on.

We use (mostly) HTC Desire 530 phones, which have a screen aspect ratio such that you should design your Instagram story images to be:

JPG (or PNG but JPG preferred)

1836 pixels wide (at most)

3019 pixels high (at most)

Of course, within Sked you can crop images to this ratio from any other aspect ratio - you will see a button in the cropper titled "Set Instagram Story ratio" which will do this for you. Otherwise, Instagram uses a centre-weighted crop, so it will crop the "middle bit" of your photo to those dimensions.

Keep in mind that different phones have different aspect ratios. The way that Instagram Stories works is that anything "outside" the viewing (or uploading) phone's aspect ratio is automatically cropped. This means that if you're including text, be aware of the difference – the main thing users need to be careful about is width, as you may see text cropped off if it is near the edges of the story.

Below is a quick comparison of the different screen sizes / aspect ratios for our phone (red) compared to iPhones (blue/green).

Of course, if you included all Android phones then the options would be practically unlimited! As a result, it'll always be best to have the main content centre-weighted (that is, in/near the middle) so that your audience will see the information regardless of their device.